46 Notable alumni of Umea University

Bertil Holmlund was a Swedish economist, and Professor of Economics at Uppsala University. He was a member of the prize committee for the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences from 1998 to 2001 and from 2005 to 2006 and was the chairman of the committee from 2008 to 2010.

Åsa Larsson Blind is a Swedish-Sámi politician who as of March 2021 serves as vice president of the Saami Council.

Karl-Fredrik Norrback is a Swedish medical doctor and researcher. He is an associate Professor of Experimental Psychiatry and researcher at the department of Clinical Sciences, Unit of Psychiatry, Umeå University, Sweden and he also holds the title of Docent in Psychology at Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland.

Jonny Holmström is a Swedish professor of Informatics at Umeå University and director and co-founder of Swedish Center for Digital Innovation.

Elisabeth Isaksson is a Swedish glaciologist and geologist who has researched polar climate history on the basis of ice cores. She has also studied snow and ice pollution on the Norwegian island of Svalbard and has participated in award-winning European projects on Antarctic climate change.

Lars-Erik Persson is a Swedish/Norwegian professor in mathematics, known for his works in Fourier analysis, function spaces, inequalities, interpolation theory and related problems connected to convexity and quasi-monotone functions.

Erik Hjalmar Josefsson is a Swedish musician, campaigner against software patents, and internet activist.

Jan Peder Johansson is a musician, composer, producer and teacher who lives in Cary, North Carolina, and has been active in the United States since 1986.

Jan Staffan Normark is a Swedish physician, microbiologist and infectious disease researcher. He grew up in Umeå and was awarded his Ph.D. at Umeå University in 1971. At the end of the 1970s, he was one of the first Swedish scientists to use the new genetic engineering tools in infection-related research. In 1980, he was made a professor at Umeå...

Sara Cerdas is a Portuguese medical doctor and politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament for the Socialist Party between 2019 and 2024.

Gunnar Öquist is a Swedish biologist and professor of plant physiology at Umeå University, and served as the permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences from 2003 to 2010.

Agneta Marell is professor in Business Administration and since 2010, Deputy vice-chancellor for external relations and innovation at Umeå University in northern Sweden. Between 2004 and 2007, she was the dean of Umeå School of Business, succeeding Anders Söderholm. In 2008–2011, she was a municipal manager for Örnsköldsvik municipality. She received the assignment as vice-president for collaboration and innovation at...

Görel Thurdin is a Swedish politician who served as the minister of physical planning and the minister of environment in the 1990s, and was a member of the Swedish Parliament.

Adi Utarini is an Indonesian public health researcher who works on disease control of dengue fever. She serves as Professor of Public Health in the Department of Health and Policy Management at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta. In 2020, she was selected as one of Nature's 10 for pioneering the randomized controlled trial of a dengue prevention technique using mosquitoes carrying...

Göran Enander, born in Gällstad, Älvsborg County on 1 September 1955, was the County Governor of Uppsala County, Sweden, from 1 November 2016 to 28 February 2023.

Helena Sofi Lindahl is a Swedish politician of the Centre Party who has been a member of the Riksdagen since 2010.

Helena Bergman is a Swedish orienteer who became World Champion in the sprint distance in Miskolc, Hungary in 2009. She lives in Stockholm and competes for OK Ravinen. She is married to Gustav Bergman.

Jabar Karim Mohamad Amin is a Swedish politician and former member of the Riksdag, the national legislature. A member of the Green Party, he represented Västerbotten County between October 2010 and September 2018.

Seyyed Mohammad Fazlhashemi was born in Tehran in 1961. He has been living in Sweden since 1977. He is a professor of Islamic Theology and Philosophy at Uppsala University, Sweden.

Anna Borgeryd was a Swedish entrepreneur, author and blogger. She was Chief Strategy Officer at Polarbrödsgruppen.

Linnea Axelsson is a Sami-Swedish art scholar, novelist and poet.

Sven Oscar Kullander is a Swedish biologist specialised in ichthyology. He primarily researches cichlids – notably the genus Apistogramma and the Cichlasoma-complex – and other tropical fresh water fishes. He also has been working with endangered fish species in Sweden.

Johanna Davidsson is a Swedish nurse and adventurer. She is the Guinness World Record holder for skiing solo, unsupported from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole.

Jan Stefan Attefall is a Swedish politician and civil servant who currently serves as Governor of Uppsala County since 2023. He previously served as Minister for Public Administration and Minister for Housing from 2010 to 2014. He is a member of the Christian Democrats.

Beppe Bengt Erik Starbrink, is a Swedish journalist and television presenter, mainly working for Sveriges Television, currently presenting Go'kväll.

Jaana Susanna Emilia Alakoski Söderlund is a Swedish author, novelist and lecturer. She won the August Prize in 2006 for the novel Svinalängorna. Svinalängorna was filmed in 2010 as Beyond. She researches gender issues and works as a social worker.

Frida Christina Östberg is a Swedish retired football midfielder who played for Umeå IK, Linköpings FC and Chicago Red Stars of Women's Professional Soccer. She is a former member of the Sweden women's national football team.

Claude Robert Cloninger is an American psychiatrist and geneticist noted for his research on the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual foundation of both mental health and mental illness. He previously held the Wallace Renard Professorship of Psychiatry, and served as professor of psychology and genetics, as well as director of the Sansone Family Center for Well-Being at Washington University in...

Anders Sundström is a Swedish banker, businessman and former politician of the Swedish Social Democratic Party.

Jan Olof Daniel Rickardsson is a Swedish retired cross-country skier who started competing in 2002.

Sverker Sörlin is a Swedish historian of ideas, professor of environmental history, and writer.

Annika Norlin is a Swedish musician, journalist and author who makes music under the names Hello Saferide (in English) and Säkert! (in Swedish).

Erik Magnus Niva is a Swedish football journalist for Sportbladet. He also is a studio expert for Viasat Fotboll.

Staffan Ling is a Swedish actor and television presenter. Ling moved to Umeå to study humanities at the Umeå University during his early years, and became one of the founders of the local student theatre (Umeå Nya Studentteater) in 1964.

Hanna Carolina Ljungberg is a Swedish former association football forward. She spent the majority of her club career at Umeå IK and was a Swedish international from 1996 to 2008.

Martin Kulldorff is a Swedish biostatistician. He was a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2003 until his dismissal in 2024. He is a member of the US Food and Drug Administration's Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee and a former member of the Vaccine Safety Subgroup of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the Centers...

Ibrahim Baylan is a Swedish politician who served as minister for schools from 2004 to 2006, as minister for energy from 2014 to 2019, minister for government coordination from 2016 to 2019 and as minister for business, industry and innovation from 2019 to 2021.

Kay Gunnar Leopold Pollak is a Swedish film director.

Thomas Gunnar Nordahl is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a forward. He is also a former manager.

Helena Helmersson is a Swedish business executive. From 2010 to 2020, she was head of sustainability at the Swedish retail clothing company H&M, and from 2020 to 2024 she was its CEO.

Kjell Stefan Löfven is a Swedish politician who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 2014 to 2021 and as Leader of the Social Democratic Party from 2012 to 2021. He is currently serving as President of European Socialists since 2022.

Lars Edvin "Lasse" Lagerbäck is a Swedish football manager and former player.

Amanda Sofia Margareta Lind is a Swedish politician and psychologist serving since 2024 as co-spokesperson of the Green Party. Between 2019 and 2021, she served as Minister for Culture and Democracy, with responsibility for sport and national minorities in the second Löfven cabinet.

Nikita Glasnović is a Swedish-born Croatian taekwondo practitioner. She represented Sweden at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 57 kg division, and lost a bronze medal match to Kimia Alizadeh.

Isabelle Robert Attard is a French archaeologist and politician, best known for her work in archaeozoology, specialising in the Bearded vulture during the Last Glacial Period. She has served as the museum director for the Bayeux Tapestry Museum from 2005 to 2010, and then the Utah Beach D-Day Museum from 2010 to 2012. As a politician, she has served as...